Fan-restored KOTOR II content creates refined, expanded game

KOTOR II wasn't the most complete Star Wars title ever released, due to an …

It started a few years ago when someone discovered some missing content in the PC version of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II The Sith Lords. They took it upon themselves to to go into the game's files and restore some of the data on their own. Then, someone else encountered a serious bug in the same title and started using the first person's work to fix the problem. From then on, it was like the snowball that gradually turned into an avalanche. The result was a large-scale project that was aimed at bringing as much missing content as possible back to the game.

After years of development, the cut content has been finally restored and the most of the bugs have been fixed, thanks to a project known as known as the "Restored Content Mod." The mod, revealed in The Deadly Stream forum, is in open beta, which means that players can now experience as complete a Jedi adventure as possible, provided they're willing to help the development team by reporting any issues they encounter. According to the project team leader, who goes by the handle "Stoney," the project's completion has been a long time coming. The result? An expanded, refined game that hints at what the original release should have been.

"The whole thing kind of started for me when I wanted to fix the broken 'Redemption' quest on Dantooine," Stoney told Ars. "While I was searching through the files... I found that it was tied into a lot more content that was cut." The quest in question required players to either condemn or redeem the reputation of the Jedi on the planet, but many gamers have reported that the quest would never resolve itself, no matter what path a player took. Stoney began working to bring back other missing pieces from the game and found himself working with another fan of KOTOR II. As a result, the duo began releasing mods that gradually made the game more complete.

Eventually, the team of two began to grow. More people got involved with the project, and a team of nine volunteers found themselves working together on a restoration effort that was much larger than anything they'd tried to accomplish on their own. "More or less, once we starting putting [our heads] together, we found a list of cut content and decided what we could add and started adding content."

Anyone who's played KOTOR II knows that it was a game that often felt incomplete and/or rushed. According to rumors—which were eventually confirmed by interviews with members of the game's development team—LucasArts gave Obsidian a deadline of roughly a year to produce a sequel to Bioware's seminal Knights of the Old Republic. Because of the game's size, a slew of content was cut in order to meet the tight deadline. According to an interview with Obsidian founder Chris Avellone, the smarter development move (in retrospect) would have been to make a shorter game that still included some of the more interesting content (like a "droid planet") that was only half-finished at the time of release.

While some might dismiss this as little more than a fan project, the Restored Content Mod deserves attention and praise for the sheer volume of content that the volunteer team has managed to return to the game. The full list is impressive: a total of 93 separate events and bugs have been reincluded or fixed. The scale of these events varies, ranging from expanding character dialogue and development to restoring missing boss battles to allowing players to determine the final fate of Malachor V.

At the moment, neither LucasArts nor Obsidian have issued any sort of response to the Deadly Stream team's efforts, though LucasArts has openly stated that it supports and welcomes fan mods of its Star Wars games. On the other hand, reactions to the restoration effort has been positive within the forum community. "So far... the response has been favorable," Stoney said, though he admitted, "there are still some bugs and rough areas. But with everyone's help we are fixing it so the final release will be better."

While the mod has yet to be finalized, the project is much closer to completion than other fan-led restoration efforts for the game. When asked about how it felt to be so close to releasing the finished version of the mod, Stoney voiced feelings of vindication and satisfaction. "It feels good," he said, "I'll feel better when the final release is actually done, then I'll be taking a break for awhile." Of course, the question on everyone's mind is "when will the final build be released?"

To that, Stoney can't provide a definite answer. "[That's] hard to say, it depends on how many bugs we find and how long it takes us to fix them."

For those who are interested in seeing examples of the mod in action, Stoney provided Ars a three-minute trailer:

If you're interested in trying this new content, head over to the Deadly Stream forums for instructions on how to download the Restored Content Mod. You'll need a PC copy of the game.

Yes. That's exactly what I mean. When you've got stuff like Drake's Fortune and Assassin's Creed out there (to name but two, and not that they are "perfect games") "last-gen" mo-cap looks very "awkward" now. Especially when *so much* of KOTOR is uncanny-valley-faces in close-up, or lightsaber fights with endless "resting" animations that play over and over and over again (see the clip for a perfect example).

And to a previous poster, where did I say that *all* voice acting in KOTOR is bad?! Some of it is ok. And much of it would be *acceptable* if the conversations weren't so packed full of chunky exposition. But some of it is just cringe-worthy.

... case in point. Just because Team Gizka bit off more then they could chew and didn't deliver for you doesn't give you the right to chastise them. They're probably torn up that they can't produce what they wanted to, and you crap all over them as an end result. Modding can be a thankless job at times.

What gives people the "right" to slag them off was their behavior. They acted like they were modding gods, banned everyone who asked about project status, pretended there was progress going on for as long as possible, banned leakers and then pretended there was never any rule against sampling beta versions. The community "pays" with attention and adoration, and they milked it without doing anything for 2/3 of the time Team Gizka was in existence.

I loved KoTOR and KoTOR 2. I have played KoTOR 2 at least 6 times all the way through as different classes/alignments.

Oddly enough, until this wonderful Ars article, I had no clue there was even missing content. The bugs, of course I knew about having played the game. They're pretty obvious.

I'm about halfway through my seventh time playing through and I think I'll frag it and start over after loading this beta mod. Just unsure if I should wait for it to complete or not. Guess it wouldn't hurt to help out the beta mod community and try it out, though.

Meh. It does sound crappy, but he's also got a point: if you don't like their pace, go make your own mod or use someone else's. Stoney and his team were cool enough to step up with their own, so problem solved, right?

Team Gizka deserves the criticism. They likely ended up delaying a successful restoration mod by years. In the beginning, they made huge progress and had a lot of talent behind it, so there wasn't a whole lot of need for other teams to ramp up or continue to try to do the same thing. But instead of turning over the huge amount of work they'd already accomplished to the community to finish when they clearly ran out of interest and had no drive left to deliver, Team Gizka decided to develop an attitude of entitlement and superiority, and ended up being a drag on the community instead of an asset. Thank goodness at least one team kept forging ahead instead of buying Gizka's line of bull.